


Fighting Their Wars

by StevetheIcecube



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Major Spoilers, street gangs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-16
Updated: 2018-04-01
Packaged: 2019-04-01 06:11:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,967
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13992156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StevetheIcecube/pseuds/StevetheIcecube
Summary: Left alone in the world, Mikhail stumbled into a pretty complicated situation. Cast out from the normal world as a refugee and then as an unruly experiment, he ended up embroiled in a conflict taking place in the streets of Indol. Torna, a group of revolutionaries, stand opposed both to the Praetorium and the aid group, Garfont, in a battle that takes place over several years and affects far, far too many people.





	1. Alone

**Author's Note:**

> Minor content warning for this chapter with mentions of violence and alcohol.

Fear sprung up in his heart at the sight of the men who were surrounding the village. Who knew who these men even were? They could be soldiers looking for revolutionaries. They could be revolutionaries looking for counter revolutionaries hiding out in the village. It didn't even matter and, honestly, Mik didn't understand the difference. They all seemed to care more about some thing he didn't understand rather than the homes and people they were burning.

"Mikhail, please, run." His father took both his hands and cupped them between his own, bending down to look directly into his eyes. "This is important. I don't know who they are or what they want, but I can swear to you they have no interest in hurting you if you're not in the way. When they're gone just find anyone you can to help you. Your mother and I love you very much, okay?"

Mikhail nodded, even though it wasn't okay. His mother had gone to the nearest city two weeks ago to see if she could get some of the latest news, but she hadn't returned. He hoped she was okay but she didn't think she was. He opened his mouth to say something but as usual the words took too long to come out and before he'd managed anything his father pushed him towards the back door. "Be safe, Mikhail. Oh Architect please just be safe."

With that, Mikhail ran. He ran until he couldn't go any further, when he tripped on a heap of stones and tumbled onto the ground. He didn't have enough energy to get up, and behind him he could hear the sounds of the men doing things he didn't want to think about. He squeezed his eyes shut and pressed his hands tightly over his ears and just hoped that everything would be okay. Someone else would run away and find him and they'd go back and it would turn out everyone had run away and the men were gone.

The air became tainted with smoke and as time passed, Mik felt hungry and thirsty and exhausted, but he needed to go back to his father. He could find food back at the village, he was sure.

As he walked back through the forest and over the fields, the smoke in the air became thicker and a really, really awful smell reached his nose. He wanted so badly to just run away again, but he had to keep going. He had to get home.

He got a terrible feeling as he got closer and closer to the village. He couldn't hear anyone. He started running when he was close to the top of the hill, desperately trying to see what was going on once he got to the-

He looked at the village for only a moment and then turned his back. From then, he wasn't quite sure what happened. He walked; of that, he was sure. He walked and walked and eventually he found people. He didn't ask their names, but they gave him food and water and, after yet more walking, they let him rest. They barely spoke to him, they just let him be. No one told him it was going to be okay. They were whole families, or half families, and there was no one really on their own. So no one spoke to him, and he spoke to no one.

They walked for a long time. From listening, they were going somewhere. A port, a place called Indol, and there was a lot of someone talking about how they were heading for salvation. As they walked, their numbers dwindled. Mikhail didn't really understand why, but people were talking about blades, and titans, and the will of the Architect. The people who left were usually angry, but some just didn't get up when everyone else did to walk onwards. Mik was pretty sure he understood that now, and he didn't spend too long looking at those people. It reminded him of looking at the village from the top of the hill.

Finally, they crossed the Cloud Sea. People still looked through him like he wasn't there at all, but he didn't really mind. It gave him lots of time to stare at the Cloud Sea and force himself not to just jump off the boat and run away from everything. When they reached the Indol titan, everything remained the same, really, just without the walking. He sat in a tent all day, or out in the square, watching people go past and watching all the mechanical aspects of the ships that drifted in and out.

He didn't really like it in Indol. It was huge and crowded and where he lived was dirty and people shouted a lot. He didn't go hungry, but the food wasn't good, and there wasn't really anything to do. No one spoke to him and no one even cared about him. He felt like he was part of the background. Sometimes he wanted to scream in an attempt to get someone to notice, but if he opened his mouth not a sound came out. 

"Good afternoon," a soft voice said. Probably to someone else, though. It was never to him. But when no one else responded and the air around him remained thick with the expectation of a response, he looked up.

There was a man Mikhail vaguely recognised standing in front of him. He was Indoline, and fairly young, and he was the one who had helped them walk across Torna to get to the ship. "My name is Amalthus," he said. His voice was gentle but Mik's heart leapt in a warning to him. He dismissed it. He just wasn't used to being spoken to anymore. "Can you speak, young man? Are you here on your own?"

He nodded. His voice was probably fine, he just wasn't very talkative. Amalthus chuckled. "Was that an answer to both questions?" He nodded again. "Good, good," he said. "Would you like to share a meal with me? There's something I wish to show you."

Mikhail nodded yet again. He would probably do anything to get away from eating the same rations every day. Amalthus smiled (he didn't look very genuine, but Mik just imagined he was stressed) and took him gently by the wrist, leading him on as he wove through the crowds and up the steps to the Sanctum Mikhail had never bothered to visit.

In the man's rooms, Amalthus set out a meal better than anything Mikhail had seen for months. "Do you like Odifa?" He asked. Mikhail had no idea, and for a moment he didn't respond at all, but Amalthus poured some info his mug anyway. "Drink it up, I think you'll like it."

Honestly, Mikhail didn't like it much, but the meal was sort of dry even though it tasted nice so he had to drink quite a bit, and Amalthus kept refilling his cup with the same thing. It sort of burned as it went down his throat. It wasn't very nice at all, but as he kept eating he kept feeling thirstier and he had to keep drinking it. He would feel rude asking for water at this point. When his plate was empty, he drained the cup again. He felt strange and dizzy, and when he was dizzy the best thing to do was usually to get something to drink.

"Don't you have enough clean water at the camp?" Amalthus asked. He tutted lightly and refilled the cup again. "Just finish this mug, and then I'll show you what I was telling you about earlier."

Mikhail nodded, and the whole room span round in circles before it settled. Something was wrong, but he didn't want to look rude, especially when Amalthus was looking at him so intently, so he drained the cup again. "Come on now, I'll show you." Mikhail just about managed to push himself up out of his chair. He felt like he was getting sick, because he couldn't walk straight and his eyes kept drooping.

Amalthus led him through to another room, filled with a soft blue glow. There was a small platform in the centre of the room, and Amalthus led him over to that. "You can sit down if you want, I'll just fetch the item I wished to show you." Mikhail nodded slowly, not wanting to move his head too much. He sat down, but once Amalthus was out of the room he felt his will to sit up weakening and he laid down on the platform to try and get the room to stop spinning. His eyes flickered closed almost without him realising.

The next thing he knew, there was a harsh blue glow above his eyes. He opened them in panic, knowing that Amalthus wouldn't be pleased if he knew he'd just fallen asleep in this important-looking room. The only thing he saw was Amalthus looming over him, arms spread wide, and a small cube hovering over his chest before it plunged inside and a searing pain tore his consciousness apart.


	2. Escape

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mik tries to get out of the situation he landed in.

He didn't understand what was happening to him. There was something rushing into his body in every direction, burning. There was aching in every inch of his limbs. Every breath stung. Every movement shot pain running up to his chest, or maybe radiating out of it. Maybe both. Everything was hot inside him, racing, and he was getting all of these sensations and he didn't understand a single one. At the same time there was something somewhere that was maybe a breeze brushing against his skin so while he was burning on the inside, he couldn't stop shaking from the cold.

There was an energy flowing into him, like water but warmer, and it was terrifying. It felt like he was being covered in thick warm water again and again and he felt like he was drowning in fire. He tried to get rid of it but he didn't know how and it just kept building and flowing and then- Someone was speaking, loudly and slowly, and someone else was speaking quickly, and there were lots of voices, but Mikhail couldn't discern a single one as he listened. People were speaking everywhere, and then one touched his arm.

The reaction was instant. Mik hadn't even been thinking about it. Suddenly there was an outlet for the energy and it immediately poured into the person who touched him through the point of contact. In that moment he could suddenly see and think again, and his only coherent thought was that he needed to get out. The man who had touched him had dropped to the ground at a strange angle and the other people had frozen. Mikhail took a chance and made a break for the open door ahead of him. His limbs were shaking all over and he could barely remember where he was or where he might be able to go to get out of here, but all he had to do was run. That was all he could do.

He ran down corridors, past lots of people who were shouting words he couldn't even process properly to understand. He was in the Sanctum, probably, but everything was moving so quickly and his eyes were so blurry and it was so dark that he couldn't really make anything out. He just forced his feet to keep moving, painful as it was (he seemed to have lost his shoes and he didn't know where which was a real shame because he probably wouldn't be able to get new ones at all), and he kept running away from anyone who tried to stop him. If anyone even brushed him with their fingertips in an effort to halt his movement, the energy that kept building up and up would spark outwards and the darkness around his eyes would encroach even further.

At some point, he had to stop. His chest was heaving and everything hurt so badly he could barely move. The thick stream that was consuming him wouldn't let up and all he could do was curl himself up tightly where he'd fallen and hope that the pain would go away soon. He almost hoped he would die right here so it would just stop hurting, but he didn't really want to die. Everything had been so bad lately that he just wanted things to get better. Surely it couldn't get any worse than right now. Surely.

"Are you alright?" He didn't know why he could distinguish that voice from everything now, but it rang so clear it was close to painful in his ears. A hand touched his shoulder and he flinched away as he felt the energy feed into the person standing there. But this person didn't draw away. "You're- I don't understand."

Mikhail couldn't say anything, but the pain was lessening. The person with their hand against his shoulder stayed there, and he could feel the drowning sensation wearing off. This person was...actually helping. He didn't feel on the edge of death anymore. "Questions can wait." Mikhail guessed the rough voice belonged to a man, and he slowly managed to open his eyes.

The man standing above him was...intimidating. He wasn't tall, but he was sure as hell a lot bigger than Mik. He was dressed in a long grey coat but he had a cloak pulled over that, and there was a mask covering his face. He looked like a criminal, but Mikhail found that he wasn't scared. This man had helped him, noticed him. And, honestly, he was too exhausted to resist help right now. "Can you walk?"

Mik tried to push his arms under himself to lever himself up, but he couldn't. Even though the pain was gone, everything was trembling too much for him to put any strength on it. He shook his head slightly, and even that sent pain shooting through his neck and chest. He cried out weakly. "No need," the man said quickly. "I will carry you to somewhere safe. I will try not to make this any worse; please don't make any noise."

Mikhail let the man hook his arms underneath him and lift him up. The man made a displeased sounding noise on lifting him up, and he hoped he wasn't too heavy. Everything hurt so much it didn't even cross his mind to resist or try and think of another way out of this situation. The heat flowing into him felt more like it was flowing through him, now, into this man who was carrying him through the square and into the more suspect areas of the city. The man was cold, and it was almost soothing against the heat of what had come before.

They rounded a street corner and eventually, after a few minutes, came to a boarded up storehouse where the man stopped. "I'm going to put you down for a moment," he said. "You can rest soon." Honestly, he'd already been resting while the man was carrying him, but he'd also been so caught up in the feeling as well as all the pain that it hadn't been that restful. The man knocked sharply on the boarded up area and someone threw a ladder down from somewhere above. Then, the man hoisted Mik onto his shoulders and, steadying him with one hand, climbed the ladder with the other.

At the top, he pulled up the ladder and knocked on a door at the top using a different rhythm. The door opened to a man with dark hair wearing dark clothes giving them a dark look. "You brought a kid back," he said. His voice was flat and held a distinctly Indoline drawl to it.

"He's not human," the man said. "He's a blade, as far as I can tell, but he doesn't have a driver and he can't control ether. Something is wrong here and we should figure it out before the worms get a hand on him."

"You saw a kid on the side of the street and brought him home," the man corrected. He sighed, but opened the door a little further. "Get him in here, then," he said. "And teach him how to control that sh- stuff, it's making it hard to breathe in here."

The man carried him inside and through the first room, setting him down on the floor when he came to a room that wasn't quite so empty. "Okay kid," he said. "You're good. You're safe here. So I just need you to focus for a little while, and I'll be able to help you feel a lot better. All that ether can't be comfortable."

Gently, he put his hands on both of Mik's shoulders and looked directly at him. "Breathe in," he said. Mikhail followed his instruction. "When you do that, can you feel the ether entering your body?" Mik nodded. "And through the contact with my body, you're constantly releasing it. Can you feel that?" He nodded again. "That's very good. Focus on that feeling of it entering and leaving your body. Can you feel where it's coming in?"

Now he thought about it, he could. It was rushing in through the intense pain in his chest. He looked down at it, afraid there was a hole there, and instead there was...without really realising, he lost control of his breathing again. The steady stream of what that man called ether suddenly sucked in uncontrollably. There was something in his chest. "Shh, shh, it's okay." The man's grip on his shoulders tightened and he sucked in a pained breath, his touch turning from comforting to firm. "It's okay. Come on, kid, just breathe with me. Shh. In and out. It's okay. Don't be scared. It's not going to hurt you, it's perfectly normal."

The man reached up, pushing his hood back and then removing the mask from his face. All the while, he kept breathing slowly and kept his left hand on Mik's shoulder. "See?" He asked gently, pushing his fringe off his forehead to reveal a bright red diamond imbedded in his skin. "I have one too. It doesn't hurt. That man who opened the door to us? He has one as well. Maybe you're not used to it, but it's there now and I promise it won't hurt you."

Mikhail managed to nod, but he was still terrified. This was all so wrong and it hurt. But he followed what the man had told him to, and breathed. They sat there in silence for a few minutes, just breathing, and eventually Mik managed to focus again. "There you go, that's better," the man said. "Now focus on that point in your chest and imagine it as a door. You need energy to come in, but at the moment the door is flung wide open, like those gates to the Sanctum. You know them? You want to close that door so only a crack is left, like when they crack a door open to let a worker into the distribution office at the refugee camp. Can you try and do that?"

Mik nodded. It was hard to transfer the image in his mind to what felt like a gaping hole in his chest, but slowly he did it. As he did so, he felt like he had to take in more air when he was breathing, but the pain was ebbing away so it was easier. The bright blue glow coming from his chest had dimmed a little. "That's great, well done." The man was smiling at him, and Mikhail couldn't help but feel a small spark of happiness. "Now, can you feel the energy flowing out of you, into me?" He nodded again. "Focus on that feeling. Try and close that passage completely. Ether energy you take in will leave you naturally as you breathe out, so you just need to let it do that instead of sending it out of the passage."

After mostly closing the door for the energy coming in, shutting the passage out was surprisingly easy. It hurt a little bit as he pulled it closed, but once it was shut completely, everything changed and all the pain he'd been feeling fell away almost entirely. Slowly, the man moved his hands away from his shoulders, leaving him sitting there, but now everything was fine. His chest hurt and he was exhausted, but he felt fine again. "Well done, kid," he said. "You get some rest now, okay? Don't worry about this now, we can talk about it when you wake up."

With that, the man gathered him into his arms again, carrying him through another doorway before setting him down on the bed. From there, Mik couldn't stop himself from quickly drifting off to sleep.


	3. Waking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mikhail wakes up and gets a chance to think about his situation.

Mikhail slept deeply. He'd been exhausted by whatever had happened to him, and though he had managed to get to sleep in the middle of the night, he could see the sun setting through the window when he woke up.

Momentarily, he was confused. Why was he inside a building? Why did everything hurt so much? And then he remembered. He had a...thing in his chest and a man had helped him escape from the Sanctum, and the people there were the ones who'd caused all this in the first place.

He sat up sharply, hissing when the pain in his chest spiked. He was honestly clueless about what he was meant to do next. He'd spent so long drifting and watching from afar and now it felt like everything had come into a painful focus. Where did he go from here? He was...something else now.

Checking that it all wasn't just a bad dream (he knew it wasn't, he could feel the ether flowing through him still), he pulled the blanket down and examined his chest. The crystal there was bordered by raw skin, sore and still aching dully. He made the connection now, unsure how he hadn't made it before, even with all the pain he'd been going through. He was like a blade. He had a blue core crystal in his chest and there was ether. The core crystal was shaped like the palm of a hand, but with long thin leaves coming out of it. It was pretty, but looking at it made him feel strange. It didn't feel real.

He sat there for a while, just staring at it. Every now and again, he'd raise his hands to touch it, but every time he held back from doing it. He couldn't bring himself to actually touch it. He didn't want to feel the transition under his fingers from skin to crystal, but he couldn't tear his eyes away from it.

"How are you feeling?" A voice came from the entrance to the room, where a man Mik didn't recognise stood. Mikhail opened his mouth to reply but the words stuck, so he just attempted a weak smile. "Sounds like you've been through a bit of a grinder."

The man was quite tall, but everyone looked tall to him, and he was dressed in blue. His hair was dark like the man from the night before, but this man's eyes were blue and framed by red glasses. "I am Akhos," he said. "Just hear to check on you, make sure your body's still running properly."

Mikhail nodded, sitting up properly and pushing the blanket down just to his lap. "You seem fine," he said, a note of approval in his voice. "You needed sleep after that large amount of ether intake and discharge, but you got that, and you're a tad malnourished, but you haven't eaten for a few days and the refugee rations really aren't enough. The inside of your body where the core crystal must have gone in is still healing, but it all looks clean with no infections. Indeed, you're not one to easily get swept off the stage before the end of the first act."

Mikhail wasn't really sure what to say. He should thank this man, maybe, but it felt almost silly and he knew his voice wouldn't come out right. "Not one for words, hmm?" Akhos asked. "Well, as long as something's not wrong with your throat or tongue. Actually, after all that you must be thirsty. Come with me and we'll get you something to eat and drink."

Mik nodded, trying not to think about the last time he'd been offered the same thing. This was different, because these people had already shown him so much kindness. It had been a long time since he'd slept in a room alone, covered by a real roof and not a tent. "No pressure as of yet, of course," he said, "but knowing what happened to you will be very useful going forward. Knowing who did this to you, chiefly."

Akhos led him out through the doorway he'd walked through exhausted yesterday into what looked like a main room. There were a few more doorways he hadn't been through and then the one that led back out to the hallway he'd been in before. The main room was lit with an amber ether lamp and the floor was carpeted with several mismatched rugs. There was a two thirds full bookcase and a fairly large desk covered in papers, alongside enough chairs and sofas to seat eight or so people. Sat on one of them, with their backs to him, were the man from the night before and a woman Mikhail didn't recognise. "The kid you pulled off the streets is awake, Jin."

The man, presumably Jin, stood up immediately. He'd discarded the mask and cloak, and was now wearing what Mikhail recognised as light Tornan body armour. "So you're awake now," he said, catching his eyes. Mik looked away after a few moments, slightly uncomfortable even though Jin was looking at him without any hostility. "How are you feeling?"

In response, Mikhail just shrugged. He felt strange. Thirsty and hungry, but okay, and also definitely not okay at the same time. The flow of ether through his body was sort of making him feel sick. "He's fine physically, his body isn't even rejecting the core crystal," Akhos said. "I don't think his body's quite used to it yet, and his mind certainly isn't, but I don't think there's too much cause for concern."

"That's good," Jin said. "Just quiet, then? That's okay. Akhos and Patroka talk quite enough for all of us." Mik heard a vaguely annoyed sound come from where the woman was sitting. She was Patroka, then.

"I think he could do with some food and water," Akhos said. "His body is still working on a truly obscene amount of alcohol he must have been given at some point, so I'd particularly imagine he's thirsty."

"Indoline scum," Patroka said, anger very clear in her tone. "He's just a kid! Giving him alcohol and then subjecting him to something that could easily be very dangerous."

"We'll work out which one of them did it and then we'll get him out of his job as soon as possible," Akhos said, but Jin shook his head.

"I hate what they do," he said, "but whoever did it probably received orders from higher up. The whole thing is corrupt and they won't remove anyone like that from a job, especially as us knowing about him means their experiments didn't fail on the spot. His time will come, as it will for all of them."

"Well time can come after we get our guest some water," Akhos said. "Don't scare him off while I go and get some." With that, he turned up towards the outer exit of the building and disappeared out of sight. Mikhail watched after him for a moment, uncertain of how to act now things weren't a crisis like they had been the night before. The silence was so uncomfortable now.

"Are you actually doing okay, or was Akhos just spouting rubbish for us as usual?" Patroka asked. Mik didn't know how to respond to that. She'd given two questions but only phrased it as one. He shrugged.

"Are you okay?" Jin asked, looking at him in a way Mikhail didn't really understand, but he was grateful he'd been thrown a line in the conversation. He nodded. "Did you sleep well?" He nodded again. He would have liked to voice how it was nice to sleep under a real roof with real bedding and not have to worry about if he'd have to wake up early to get any food at all, but those were too many words.

"Thank you," he managed to mumble the words out, sounding hesitant even as he went. Speaking was hard and he didn't know if he'd said the right words, especially after the momentary look of confusion on the faces of both of them. But then Jin's face broke into a small smile, and it was worth it, even if his throat was dry and his voice crackly.

"No problem," he said. "Helping those who fall foul of the power of Indol in some way doesn't require any thanks." Even though he said that, he looked pleased. "We don't know much about you, but I'm glad I found you before."

Mikhail nodded enthusiastically. He wasn't sure what would have happened if he hadn't been found that night. It had been such a horrible, painful experience that already felt like it was a world away, yet the memory was still so close. But even though it was so close, it was decidedly in the past now. All of this felt like something else entirely, and while it was scary, it was also somehow exciting.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :) as an author I really appreciate comments because it helps me understand whether readers understand what's going on and if something has gone wrong.


End file.
